"Looks like you did it without spending anything too." Bingo! The only thing we bought was the fireplace screen, about $35 at Lowes. [sidenote: how impossible is it to find these thing in stores these days! catalog only, almost. Home Depot doesn't even carry them anymore. I didn't like the ones at Target. I never made it to a fireplace shop, but I didn't want a nice (ie expensive) one anyway. ] Oh, and the tree, but we would have bought one anyway. The good thing is that we have a 9-month-old puppy who will eat the tree and everything on it if given the chance, so being able to shut the French doors is necessary -- but we can still see the tree. The rest of the house is much less decorated (due to dog), but at least we have a riot of crap in one room! ;-)

Still undecided here. I think it's best to keep the furniture arrangement like it is. I had considered flipping the two rooms, but don't want the dining table obscuring that first view of the fireplace when you enter the house. So that's decided. Still pondering the suggestions of the storage/shelving being in the other room... The idea the cabinet guy and I came up with is to split the dining wall into thirds, do two 55" bookcase/storage cabinets right up to the ceiling, with an equally sized wainscot between, allowing space for some sort of table I can store stools under (to be used at the table when we need extra seating). I'm also trying to fit in a desk of some sort for a computer, maybe on the opposite dining wall. But I don't want it to look like Apple is taking over our dining room, it's gotta be inconspicuous. I love the look of this room too, and it would fit great with our lifestyle - four kids and lots of homework:

I'd say don't put in doors if you cannot do pocket doors. I don't think you have room for doors that open to lay flat along the back wall without them getting in the way of the left door to the stairs. Regarding the layout, if it's set in stone and cannot be modified, so be it. It's too bad you cannot change it, but that's life. Yes, you will have some issues, e.g., the DW in the way of the Prep Zone & significant zone-crossing as well as the refrigerator if it's against the wall (b/c a 90-degree stop will be a problem when you try to remove bins, etc., for cleaning. Refrigerators should never be up against a wall - even built-ins can have issues with opening doors fully, although it isn't usually as bad as with counter-depth and standard-depth.) But you will get used to them. As I've told others, humans are very adaptable, we can adapt to both the good and the bad. We find ways to make do. One thing I suggest is that you invest in a mobile cart/island so you can use it to transport ingredients, etc., to/from the refrigerator and the Prep Zone. The biggest gain I see, though, is opening up a doorway into the DR. I think that in and of itself will make all of this worthwhile!

I love library dining rooms. How many do you hope to have eat at the table most times? If only four I would add a small round table with four parson slipcovered chairs centered under the light. A couple of wall shelves flanking the door shown in the last picture and either a built in cushioned window seat or a purchached long bench in the bow window for listening to the piano or curling up with a book. If you do not like the bench in the window a small club chair or two in corners are nice in a multipurpose dining room as well.